There is No Paradise
by anand891996
Summary: Misaka Mikoto realizes there is no one to save her, no one to help. She has only one way forward, a path that leads to only more darkness and pain. A what-if in which Touma never came across the Sisters and Misaka Mikoto after he lost his memories, and the fallout thereof
1. Chapter 1

"_S-Processor Neuro Labs. The last of the facilities I was supposed to destroy yesterday…."_ Mikoto mused, her eyebrows scrunched up in confusion as she scoped out the facility through her binoculars.

Said facility was was oddly shaped, as many research facilities were, to accomodate for the labs within it, with multiple bridges connecting the various smaller blocks that split off from the main building. Mostly windowless, it looked mildly out of place amongst the glass skyscrapers around it, being a relatively short and squat structure.

It was the last of the facilities left through which the Level 6 Shift project was running, the last of the facilities that facilitated the sequential murder of her sisters.

However….

"_Something is not right here….. No one is going in or out...and it's a weekday too...a holiday? But no, there are no guards either…."_

Mikoto lowered the binoculars, confused. "_Something is just not right…._"

"_Well, maybe I just can't see the activity from this far? Some cloaking tech?" _she speculated, feeling stupid even as she thought of it.

Shaking her head, she started to slowly make her way towards her planned point of entry, a bit of wall that had an inconspicuous service entrance to the main building, carefully erasing her traces from every camera she could detect.

As she got closer, it became even more apparent that there was no one at the facility that day

"_This is even more suspicious. On top of no one going in or out, and no guards or security being up, none of the electronic devices inside are powered? Is this a trap?"_ She thought as she cautiously looked around a corner, eyeing eight foot tall wall around the facility's perimeter, the wall topped by a barbed wire fence.

She scaled the wall, magnetically sticking herself to the rebar within the walls and using them as handholds so to speak, landing near the service entrance as she had planned, her eyes on the keypad which kept the door locked.

"_Even this is inactive?..."_ Her eyebrows scrunched up in suspicion and confusion as she sent a burst of charge into the system, unlocking the door.

"_Lights shut off…...is there really no one in the facility?"_ She thought, peering in cautiously, still wary that it was a trap to lure her in, her paranoia at an all time high given yesterday's battle against the Meltdowner.

"_I really hope I don't come across her again…." _she thought with a shiver. "_The sheer destructive power….. If it weren't for all the bombs the barrette girl left lying around I don't think I could have won"_

She shook her head of the errant thoughts, sending another pulse ahead of her, and getting nothing in response, causing her paranoia to ratchet up even higher

She slowly made her way to the room, despite having nothing blocking her way, with even the cameras having been turned off. Every unopposed step made her more paranoid, and by the time she reached the control room, with nothing barring her way, she was almost entirely convinced that someone was waiting for her on the other side of the door.

Completely tense, she pulsed the lock on the door, fully charged, ready to blast the person on the other side with a bolt of lightning.

The door opened with a hiss, revealing…

"_The room is empty?"_ she thought, sighing and releasing the built up charge through a convenient plug point, probably blowing a few fuses in the system. The opened door revealed an empty room, with a bank of consoles to access the mainframe powered off.

"_Something is definitely up…"_

She booted up the mainframe, brute forcing her way through the security protocols, trying to find the information she needed.

A few minutes of random browsing through the system confirmed what she thought had happened, but felt too unreal for her to actually accept.

"_So there really is no one here ...and all the information has been erased?"_

Confused and suspicious, Mikoto pulled out her data pad, the system too small and weak on its own to really qualify as a computer, but good enough for casual browsing, and hit up a search on the lab.

"_They filed for bankruptcy three days ago?"_ Mikoto thought, scratching her head.

"_Did I actually force them...to retreat?"_

* * *

Mikoto left the lab, cautiously erasing all traces of her break in, and then started to walk around aimlessly, her thoughts awhirl.

"_This feels unreal. Did I...actually stop them?"_ She pondered as she walked into one of the many parks that were littered around Academy City, kept scrupulously clean by it's army of bots.

"Did I actually... win_?_" She whispered out loud, sounding disbelieving even to herself.

"_This feels so unreal….."_

Mikoto continued to walk, her thoughts dwelling on the experiment, and the naiveté that caused it.

She bit her lip, harshly. "_Whatever happens, nothing changes the fact that I caused the death of all of those sisters. I allowed the experiment to run in the first place."_

She bit her lip harder, nearly drawing blood, forcing herself to remain calm.

"_But at the very least ...they won't have to die anymore for this madness….."_ she reflected, feeling a weight she hadn't even known was there lifting, the tension and anxiety of the past few weeks slowly starting to dissolve.

She was broken out of her runimantions by a loud exclamation of despair to her right.

She scowled, ready to verbally blast the person who was being so rude, turning on her heel, and unconsciously falling into an aggressive stance.

"_Wait a second, it's that moron"_ Mikoto thought as her eyes widened in recognition of the head of unnaturally spiky hair.

"_Wait is that my vending machine?_" She thought, with a growing sense of amusement, "_Did he feed money into it?"_

Just as she was about to move to help the poor soul (and maybe take some pleasure in his pain), a voice she hoped never to hear again called out from behind her.

"Onee-sama?"

Mikoto froze, the dread and tension that had slowly been draining out of her all this time coming back in full force.

Mikoto turned back around to see her own face, dressed much like her in her own uniform down to the socks she wore, brown wide eyes, and choppy brown shoulder length hair.

The illusion was broken, however, by the military goggles that the clone was wearing on the top of her head.

"I wonder what Onee-sama is doing, moving in such a predatory manner towards that poor boy, Misaka says as she attempts to crack a joke," the clone said, monotone as always.

A random part of Mikoto wondered if that habit of vocalizing what they ought to be feeling was programmed into them by some researcher who found the lack of insight, of empathy, unnerving.

Mikoto surged forward, wrapping an arm around the clone's shoulders, and started to forcibly drag the clone away from the spot, to somewhere more private, where she could talk to the clone, and find out just _what_ she was doing out and about.

"Onee-sama, wait, stop dragging me, Misaka says as she attempts to-"

"Oh, shut up and just come along." Mikoto said, gritting her teeth.

* * *

Mikoto dragged the clone into one of the maze of alleys between the buildings of the city, turning at random so as to make sure that they would be alone.

The clone followed silently.

Mikoto stopped as they reached a dead end. Satisfied that they were mostly isolated, she let out a pulse of energy to short out any cameras around them.

She then turned around to face her clone.

"What are you doing out in public?" Mikoto asked, now starting to get mildly annoyed. They should know better than to just walk around in broad daylight.

"I am preparing for experiment number 10021, Misaka says as she explains herself concisely,." she said, expressionless as usual, causing Mikoto's eyes to widen in horror at the exact words she just heard. "I was on the way to my next objective when I saw you, and thought I should greet you, Misaka says as she attempts to explain herself."

"Experiment ...10021?" Mikoto asked, a suffocating feeling in her chest intensifying with every word she heard.

"Affirmative. The Level 6 Shift Project is fully on schedule, Misaka states as she tilts her head in confusion," she answered matter-of-factly, tilting her head in a motion that came off as being mildly robotic in nature.

The suffocating feeling continued to rise in Mikoto's chest, and she slowly sank down to the ground, back against the wall, cradling her head in her arms.

"_The destruction of the labs didn't help. They must have had other facilities, hidden facilities, to carry out their research. But where are they? How do I find them?" The_ suffocating feeling in her chest becoming almost painful now.

"_How do I save my sisters?" _Her heart feeling like it was about to burst out of her chest

"_How do I save my sisters?" S_he thought, as her chest refused to expand

"_HOW DO I SAVE MY SISTERS?"_

"Are you alright?, Misaka asks as she expresses her concern," the clone said, leaning down in front of her, watching as her breathing became shallower.

Seeing her face, however, triggered a memory of the first night, the night she saw her sister being dismembered by that monster, the night she saw her sister being crushed by a train carriage.

The sound of metal crushing flesh, the wet squelch of a limb being mercilessly torn off.

"S-stop it..." Mikoto said, trying to shut out the images, the sensations.

The metallic tang of blood, _oh so much blood,_ filling the air.

"G-get away from me..." Mikoto stuttered, scooting away in panic and fear.

"Onee-sama?" the clone asked confused.

"STOP CALLING ME THAT, STOP USING MY VOICE!" Mikoto finally screamed, her eyes wild.

The clone rose up, giving no hints as to what her thoughts were.

"As you wish, Onee-sama," she said, and simply walked away, for once, not qualifying the statement with whatever it was she was thinking at the moment, and walking out of the alley.

The words, toneless and emotionless cut through Mikoto's thread of thought, leaving her gaping, but still unable to move as her sister walked away.

"_What...did I just do?"_ She thought, her chest still painfully tight.

"Ah.."

"Ahh.."

"AAAAHHH!" She screamed, punching the wall next to her hard enough to bruise her knuckles.

"_I am the worst." _She cursed herself, tears welling up in her eyes but refusing to fall, feeling bad for what she said to her sister, but at the same time, unable to bring herself to face her and apologize.

Unable to actually look at that emotionless face with its blank eyes and...

She shuddered, and took a deep breath, forcing herself to focus, to not think about what had just happened.

"_Well, they must have found another facility to run their research from. Just need to find and destroy it."_ Mikoto thought, shakily getting up to her feet. "_Now let's just find that out and we will be golden….."_

* * *

"_One hundred and eighty three facilities?!" _Mikoto thought, scrolling through the list that her data pad, hijacking the resources of a nearby terminal, was showing her. "_How on earth did they get so many so quickly"_

"_The only way they could do that is…."_

_"..."_

"_Huh...I really have been a complete idiot….."_

"_How could I not realize?" _She thought, her eyes somber with realization.

"_In this city, constantly under satellite surveillance, it's impossible to conduct such experiments in broad daylight and have them remain secret. Which means the upper management of Academy City is complicit…."_

"_Which in turn means...the entirety of Academy City...is my enemy?" _Mikoto thought, the suffocating feeling from earlier rising up in her chest, stronger than ever. She leaned against the wall of the booth, her legs suddenly unable to support her weight, and slowly slid down against it.

"_How do I stop the experiment? How do I save my sisters? Should I try to destroy more labs? But won't they just move to another facility? They just did that. So I have to destroy everything? But no, that's not viable, I can't raze the whole of Academy City to the ground…" _She thought, cradling her head in her arms.

With each passing moment, the suffocating pressure in her chest mounted, her breath getting shorter and more laboured.

"_What do I DO?!" _ she thought, clutching at her hair desperately. "_If Academy City itself is my enemy…..What can I even DO!?"_

* * *

A couple of hours later found Mikoto back in her dorm, wearing her pajamas and lying on her bed, clutching her old, tattered, ugly bear, with the sound of water running in the background as Kuroko took her bath for the night.

She barely remembered the journey back, her mind completely consumed by trying to think of various ways to try to get the project to stop.

"_Do I go against the mastermind? But no, if it's Academy City that's running the project, fighting will serve no purpose, the seed has already grown into a tree, a forest even"_

"_Besides, who can even think of such an idea…."_

Mikoto started, coming to a sudden realization.

"_An existence with no sense of morality, only cold logic. Could it be….."_

"_No, I can't. Academy City has basically been ignoring my interference to keep the existence of this quiet." _She thought, hugging her old, tattered bear with the eye patch closer. "_Which means…if I go after that, if I go after the Tree Diagram, they won't be able to ignore me any more."_

"_That will make me a wanted fugitive..." _She clutched her ragged bear even harder, nails digging in deep.

"Onee-sama, the bath is ready for you!" Kuroko called, walking over to her desk, combing her hair as she did so, giving her a concerned look when the brunette didn't respond to her call.

"_Will I have to go up against the city forces? Anti-Skill?" _

"_Judgement?"_ Mikoto thought, her mouth going sandpaper dry at the thought of having to fight against Kuroko. Sweet, naive, creepy yet loving Kuroko, in her ever present drive to see justice done, and against the quiet and soft Uiharu as well

"_Oh Kuroko…." _

She rolled over, missing the concerned look that her pigtailed roommate shot her.

"_But what if that's my only choice….."_

Mikoto looked up again, a bemused expression on her face.

"_Look at me, murderer of ten thousand people, thinking about living a normal life."_ She thought, nearly bursting out into hysterical laughter.

"Hey, Kuroko." Mikoto said softly, without turning over.

"Yes Onee-sama!" Kuroko said, sounding as always, nearly delirious at even the slightest bit of attention, even after all this time.

"S-suppose, hypothetically, I did something bad, something irreversible to Academy City. What would you do?" Mikoto asked, throat dry.

Kuroko paused for a second, a thoughtful expression on her face, chin resting on her palm.

"Well if you are referring to how you vandalize that poor machine everyday to get a few drinks, you could just...stop?" she replied.

"Not that Kuroko," Mikoto said, irrationally irritated by the response and lack of understanding. "Besides, it took ten thousand yen of mine when I was still a freshman, it's fair game." She muttered rebelliously.

She took a deep breath, centering herself.

"No, I meant something more serious. Something that could throw the whole of Academy City into disarray."

There was another pause, this one more pregnant.

"I have no idea why you would ask that, Onee-sama. But if someone were to disturb the peace of the city, be it you or anyone else, what I have to do will not change." She replied, her voice sharp, serious.

Mikoto chuckled, with no humour in her tone.

"Never change Kuroko, never change." The girl said, forcing herself to shut her eyes, ignoring the concern she felt flowing over from her roommate, her resolve now set on what she needed to do.

"_I cannot allow any more of my sisters to die" _she thought, ignoring the dread pooling in her chest, the familiar feeling rising up again, "_If my normal life is the sacrifice that it demands, then so be it."_

* * *

The next morning, Mikoto woke up early, before the dawn, unable to sleep. She snuck out of the dorm, leaving Kuroko softly snoring at her bed. She snuck out of the dorm, stumbling aimlessly around the city for a bit, trying to figure out what she was going to do next.

"_While it's all well and good to think about it, I don't think I can actually destroy the Tree Diagram itself, not while its in orbit."_ She thought, draping her arms around a railing, staring sightlessly into the afternoon sky.

"One hundred and eighty three..." Mikoto muttered. "_Even if I took out ten facilities a day, it would take me almost three weeks to actually clean them all out, and I definitely will be noticed doing so... And how many more of my sister's will die in those weeks….."_

"_Hmm... I just need to delay the project, force them to reconsider…" S_he thought, looking up, noticing the weather blimp floating into her line of sight.

She glared hatefully at the predictions it displayed, predictions based on the calculations of the same thing that had ruined her life.

"_I just need to make them pause, to throw them into confusion for a bit…" _Her mind raced with ideas, and for an irrational instant she wondered whether it would be worth it to shoot down the blimp with a railgun.

She sighed.

"_Let's do this then." _

* * *

An hour later she found her at the bus stop in District 23.

The stop itself was surrounded by wide open fields with large, black tarmac marking the various runways that made up most of the district.

It served as a stark contrast to the sheer urban-ness of the other districts of Academy City, which rose both high above the ground and in many cases, several levels below it as well.

She stared at the chain link fence lining the perimeter of one of the runways, two bots standing guard in front of one of the side entrances to it close to the bus stop.

She cautiously looked around to see if there was anyone about, and then sent a pulse towards the bots, temporarily scrambling their systems while she vaulted herself over the fence.

Once past the main fence, Mikoto rapidly made her way to the relay facility.

The Tree Diagram, being in geocentric orbit above Academy City, used a facility to relay the data to it from Academy City, and for security all communications were routed through the same relay, located within one of the many facilities in District 23.

"_I just need to tamper with the source code and force them to redo a calculation on the experiment using my interaction with Accelerator as the catalyst. Then force an error message to pop up and make them doubt in the machine's calculations." _Mikoto thought as she ran along the perimeter wall of the relay facility, its huge dish dominating the skyline, using the rebar again to serve as anchors to guide her along, conveniently allowing her to stay out of sight of the cameras focused on the ground.

"_Well, it's not like they won't find out when they rerun the simulation again."_ She mused as she touched down right next to the entrance, conveniently bypassing all of the perimeter defenses. "_But that will at least buy me enough time to shut this thing down once and for all" _

She sent a pulse through the mechanism of a side entrance, forcing it open and making her way in.

She was however, greeted by a hallway lit with what she recognized as emergency lighting

"_This part of the facility is shut down?" _She thought, bemused, making her way in deeper.

However, even as she approached the main parts of the facility, the lights remained off, the sensors and cameras inactive.

"_There doesn't even seem to be anyone here ...Has this facility been abandoned too? Or is it another trap for me?"_ Her eyes scanning the surrounding area, frowning in confusion, biting her lip nervously as she looked for the trap she was certain was waiting for her, her paranoia ratcheting up higher as she moved in deeper.

"_This doesn't make sense." _She ranted in her mind, forcing the main lift leading directly up to the main control room, open. "_Even if this facility was abandoned or is a trap, there is no reason to allow me to penetrate this deeply. Something is very, very wrong"_

She cautiously made her way out of the lift. Despite not coming across anything, her paranoia was back at maximum.

"_The main control room...is empty? At this time of the day?"_

She cautiously entered the room, confused.

"_The main console is active and running but….." _

She ran a finger along the edge of the console, "_This thick layer of dust...it hasn't been used in a while…. But why?"_

Mikoto shook her head. "_I don't have time for this. I need to do my job and get out. I can ponder upon this later."_

Forcing her doubts aside, and ignoring the paranoid side of her saying that she was at the wrong place, she brought out her datapad and jacked into the network, forcing her way in, and started to rapidly navigate past the various menus and screens.

"_Let's see…..Uploads …..Uploads….Huh?"_

"_Zero Uploads? What? Doesn't the Tree Diagram get hundreds of requests everyday?"_ She questioned, navigating to the upload queue.

"_But no, the requests are being made...yet, none are being processed? Why?"_

She started attempting to navigate to the system logs, and was asked for a password

"_Get out of my way" _ Mikoto spat, irritated, brute-forcing past the firewall.

"_Hm? Reports?..."_

She navigated her way to the most recent one, dated July 28th, nearly three weeks ago.

"**July 28th: 00:22- The Tree Diagram has not been detected at its predicted orbital position, nor can we establish a connection to the satellite.**

**July 28th: 01:15- First Response team has been dispatched**

**July 28th: 03:40- Portion of the remnant has been successfully recovered. First Response Team reports that the Tree Diagram had been destroyed and has ceased to function."**

"_The Tree Diagram has been...destroyed?" _ Her mind stuttering to a complete halt.

"_What?!"_

* * *

Once she was out of the facility, her mind was able to focus on the pertinent question.

"_The Tree Diagram...is destroyed? But how? An enemy weapon? Space debris?" _ She thought, barely noticing where she was going, her feet taking her wherever they could.

"_But no….that's not the problem here is it? The problem is that I just lost the last means for me to delay or thwart the experiment. If it's continuing despite the loss of the Tree Diagram, that means I have no options left..."_ Her feet slowly came to a halt.

"_I have nothing left….._

She stared up at the sky, her eyes blindly following the shape of a plane rising into the air, her mind blank, unable to come up with a single viable idea.

"_..."_

"_I have to start putting down the remaining facilities."_

"_I have to do __**something**_"

She ignored the part of her screaming at the futility of her course of action.

That her Sisters were doomed to die no matter what she did.

"_There was a facility in this district right?" _The girl tossed those thoughts aside, scrambling to occupy her mind with anything else but this looming feeling of dread, of hopelessness.

Her face twisted into a humorless grin, an expression closer to a grimace.

"Might as well burn it down while I'm here…"

* * *

"Your Identity code cannot be verified," came the voice over the PA system, an army of security bots rushing out of the hallways towards her. "Unauthorized personnel are not allowed in this area. Please allow yourself to be-."

Mikoto let out a surge of electricity, overloading all of the bot's systems, cutting off the speakers and melting the insides of the army of bots in front of her.

"_Get out of my way,"_ She growled at the growing number of glorified trash cans that stood in her way, her face completely devoid of any mercy for the robotic security.

She walked past a couple of hallways, when suddenly a bot rushed towards her, a series of small arms extended, aggressively chopping at her.

She grabbed the bot in a magnetic grip, throwing it through the concrete wall, it's battery puncturing on the way out, causing a small explosion, peppering her with hot debris that she barely noticed, sparks escaping around her to form a terrifying visage.

"An explosion? Wha…"

"O-oh God…..It's her!"

She barely noted the panicked screams of the few scientists who had now taken notice of the approaching girl, her mind focused solely on her task.

She walked deeper into the facility, throwing bolts of energy at any system that looked important, destroying banks of servers, routers, equipment.

"_It's not over yet" _

She threw another bolt of lightning.

_"I cannot give up. Not while I still have sisters to save."_

"_I just need to destroy them all. Everyone involved in this project now, and everyone who will ever be involved in it." _Pieces of debris continued to rain around her, as she continued her destructive stroll through the building.

"_EVERYTHING!" _ She screamed within her mind as she let out a concentric blast of energy,.

"_I will destroy everything! Their equipment, their funds, their ambitions. I will BURN IT ALL TO THE GROUND!"_ Another server bank met it's explosive end with a crack of her electric whip.

_"Then maybe one day…"_

Her walk halted for a moment, a hysteric giggle threatening to spill from her lips as the destruction continued to envelop more of the site.

"_One day? Do you really think such a day will come? And how many more of your sisters will have to die before you reach that day?" _Came the traitorous thought, the thought she had been trying to suppress, the truth she had been trying to ignore

"SHUT UP!" She screamed, clutching at her hair desperately, almost pulling it out as she let out another blast of electricity, barely missing the many fleeing people trying desperately to keep their lives.

"THEN WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO!? WHAT OTHER WAY DO I HAVE LEFT!?" She screamed out, trying to drown out the thoughts in her head, letting out another blast of lightning, the lights and screens blowing out in response.

A small movement caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. She turned to the nearly destroyed bank of screens, with a few having miraculously survived her rampage.

And on the screen that had caught her eye was one of her sisters, missing her shoes, lying face down in some dirty alley, her left side soaked in blood.

Mikoto walked towards the display, drawn forward almost forcefully, unable to tear her eyes off of it, watching as the clone tried to get up, her face determined, letting out a bolt of energy only for it to be reflected back upon her, causing her body to convulse and collapse a moment later.

"S-stop…" Mikoto whimpered, as she watched Accelerator walk onto the screen, his mouth moving silently.

"N-no..." Her voice came out like a whisper, as her body leaned even further forward, drawn against her will as Accelerator hunched toward the downed clone, and stuck his finger into the bleeding wound on her sister's arm.

"S-St…" She started to say, arm rising towards the screen, trying to hopelessly reach out and stop what was about to happen, or to subconsciously shield her eyes as the body of her sister popped like an inflated balloon, throwing guts and blood in every direction.

The feed was quickly painted red with the blood.

Her mouth fell open in shock, her eyes glued to the image of red covering the large screen.

"_Not again."_

Her willpower failed her as her knees met the floor. Pained sobs turned into cries, those cries into wailing moans of pure despair.

* * *

Mikoto knelt against the bank of screens, her tears having finally run out, her mind once again turning back to the project itself.

"The Level 6 Shift Project.." She muttered, "By killing the Railgun in one hundred and twenty eight battle scenarios, the top ranked esper, Accelerator, will achieve Level 6…"

"_The simulations all predict that I will be able to survive a maximum of one hundred and eighty five moves in an all out fight against Accelerator…."_ she thought, her hands on the edge of the platform on which the screens rested, her eyes on the ground.

"_But what if…. I lost on the first move…"_ she mused, "_What if I completely destroyed the base assumptions of the project, make it look like a complete waste of time….."_

"Huh ...so that's what I need to do..." She muttered, slowly rising up.

"_All I need to do….. is die."_ With that final thought ringing in her head, she carved an exit out of the facility, unbothered by the raging alarms and cries of panic still resounding throughout the building.

* * *

Mikoto walked, her mind awhirl, trying to think of more ways she could save her sisters, and her mind returning to the same point every single time, every iteration further convincing her that it was the only possible way left.

That proving the base assumption of the entire simulation was flawed was the only way forward.

She barely noted where she was going, her feet on autopilot. She didn't notice the crowds thinning out as it got late, she didn't note the general announcement signalling the start of curfew.

She continued to walk, slowly coming to a stop at the middle of a bridge. Her head turned towards the edge, peering down at the dark water framed by the shadow of the moonlit bridge.

"_Since the Tree Diagram is destroyed, there is no way for them to simulate the experiment again…."_ Her thoughts continued, eyes still on the flowing water, her chin resting on her arms as she stared into the depths. "_So if I prove it's base assumption wrong, there is nothing they can do to recalculate the results…."_

She swallowed thickly.

"_Why did it have to come to this…."_ she thought, trying to swallow the tears that threatened to fall.

"_Is there really no other way to prevent this?...No other way that doesn't require more sacrifice?"_ The tears welled up out of her control, verging on the brink of rupture.

"Somebody...Help me." She whimpered desperately, as the pent up tears started to fall.

"Somebody, save me..." Her words fell on deaf ears. Hopelessly reaching out to the world to give her a way out. A method that doesn't need the death of a helpless, crying girl.

"Somebody…"

* * *

"_God I am so pathetic"_ Mikoto thought, her tears having once again dried out, leaning against the railing of the bridge, staring down into the dark depths below.

"_Here I am, crying like a little baby while my Sisters sacrifice their lives for the sake of some megalomaniac..." _She thought in disgust, more so about herself rather than the monster killing her sisters..

"_20:15"_ Her bloodshot eyes turning to the clock on her phone.

"_The next experiment is in fifteen minutes", _Having long since memorized the entire schedule in her obsession to bring the experiment to an end, she knew exactly when it would start.

She quickly brought up the GPS on her phone, for once regretting the fact that she had bought a simpler flip phone, just for the Gekota casing it had.

"_It's not too far off from here"_ She thought, ignoring the dread pooling in her chest, forcing herself up on shaky legs, putting up a foolishly brave front.

She started to walk towards her destination, a railway yard a couple of kilometers away, her resolve strengthening with every step, pushing down her doubts and fears, using one mantra to solidify her decision.

"_This is the only way." _She told herself, ignoring the tightness in her chest.

"_This is the only way." _She thought, ignoring her shaking hands and laboured breathing.

"_This is the only way." _She believed, as she walked towards certain death.

* * *

**So welcome to my newest story, one which I am actually surprised and sad to see hasn't really been explored in the way I wanted it done. **

**Before people jump in pitch forks, no, I am not cutting Touma out of the plot. _However_, I am cutting him out of Sisters, and intend to see how that will affect all of it's players, and the overall plot of the wider Index universe.**

**At this point, novels upto NT22R have been published. So I _might_ end up excluding stuff that becomes super relevant later, but I doubt that is a problem right now, this early into the story.**

**So, a huge round of applause for my Beta, Lilac, from the KL discord server. Holy crap did he help me a lot, the first chapter would have been a flaming pile of shit worse then the Gamer fic if it were not for him. Thanks a lot bro!**

**Kitsunerei88 helped me write some of the more emotional bits, and helped me conceptualize a lot of reactions in the story, despite never having seen or watched anything in the raildex universe. So thanks kit! **

**Credits to a couple of people who shall remain unnamed, who helped me by relating rather personal experiences regarding panic attacks, which helped me in a lot of ways.**

**Also, credits to Silverfang88 for coming up with the title of the story.**


	2. Chapter 2

"This...can't be happening to me..." A certain unlucky boy said disbelievingly. Bringing his hands up to his face to conceal the utterly depressed expression he wore.

"Give it back...Give it back...Oh please give it back!" He whined, tears of desperation gathering at the corners of his eyes as he looked to the source of his frustration.

A single unassuming vending machine in the middle of a park.

You may ask as to why this spiky-haired individual was currently bashing every button on the machine with a crazed fury. The answer to that question is rather simple.

"Give me back my money you hungry hunk of junk!"

The machine who's feelings had no doubt been hurt by this statement, had eaten up the unfortunate boy's money and gave him nothing in return. But it hadn't simply taken a few coins, oh no no. This machine had swallowed a whole 2000 yen from the fuming porcupine.

"_I knew that using 2000 yen was a risk, I knew it and yet I fed it my last bit of money like an absolute idiot! If there is a God above I ask for you to smite this idiotic Kamijou! Smite me oh great smiter!" _He lamented within his mind, cursing at what little sanity he had left.

He futilely tapped on the unresponsive glass in the hopes that it might at least spit out a drink. A pithy remuneration was better than nothing.

"Such Misfortune." He complained, before letting go of the money within his mind, cutting it away from his soul.

"_Sigh… Well, it's not like I need it anyway."_ He thought to himself, trying to salvage what little pride he had left by convincing himself that it was the truth.

With a deep sigh he walked ahead. Mentally recalculating his budget for the month. Something which happened far more frequently than it should have for no fault of his.

* * *

Touma eventually found another vending machine, this time trying his luck with a few coins he had procured from his dwindling bank account.

Having found a seat in the empty park, he sipped on his hard earned beverage, biding his time now that he had a cool drink to soothe his frustration.

He sat there, can of soda in hand.

He definitely wasn't avoiding going home and facing the glutinous nun who would inevitably bite his head off upon hearing that they were restricted to minimum rations for the rest of the month. No, not at all.

"Such Misfortune…" He lamented yet again.

He took another sip of his lemon soda giving a momentary burst of sweetness on his tongue to distract him from his troubles.

However, before he could swallow, a mess of tawny hair suddenly appeared in front of him.

"Oi! You! Have you seen my Onee-Sama?" came the shrill voice from the hair.

Touma scrambled backward over the park bench and onto his back, nearly spitting out his mouthful in the process

"_Cough! Cough!_ Hey! Don't suddenly assault people in the middle of the day. I very nearly spat my drink all over you!" Touma sputtered as he forced the mouthful down past his shock.

The girl peered at him suspiciously.

"Have you seen my Onee-sama?" she asked again, this time with more force.

"I have no idea who this 'Onee-sama' of yours is, and frankly seeing how rude you are I'm not too bothered to find out." Touma replied with clear disinterest in his voice..

The girl sniffed disdainfully. Throwing a dirty look towards the boy.

"You dare treat the brilliant visage of my Onee-sama, the third ranked Level 5 and most powerful electromaster, with such disinterest? You ignoramus, do you even know who she is?"

"Yup. No. No idea who you're talking about." Touma said, finally taking in the details of the girl in front of him past the color of the hair that had been shoved into his face.

She was short, her tawny hair not a mess as he had initially assumed, but tied in an elaborate set of twin-tail braids. She was dressed in white shirt with a brown blazer on top, as well as a skirt that seemed far too short to serve any meaningful purpose.

He also noted the presence of a green band on her left sleeve, which ignited his forgotten frustration of a few minutes prior.

"Hey, you're Judgement!" He said, his mood going up a few notches. "You can help me with my lost money! No, it's more like stolen money. That darn machine..."

The girl's eyebrow twitched as the boy effortlessly derailed her inquiry.

Nonetheless she steeled herself. "Unfortunately, I'm not on duty right now, I'm more preoccupied with finding my friend." She said, turning away in an effort to leave.

"Hey, wait!" He cried out, mildly desperate to regain his lost funds as he grasped her arm with his right hand.

"You have to help me. That is nearly a tenth of my monthly budget! I can't be made to face the beast that dwells in my home if I don't come back with enough money to feed her!" Touma pleaded, not noticing the suspicious look that the girl was giving him, or more accurately his hand on her arm.

"Let go of me!" She said, shoving his hand off. She then quickly disappeared, reappearing a few meters to the left.

"Woah! A teleporter!?" Touma exclaimed, surprised to see the Judgement girl rematerialise before his very eyes.

The girl stared at him with suspicious eyes, a few lines of thought going through her mind before heaving a defeated sigh.

"Where did you lose your money?" She asked begrudgingly, much to Touma's relief.

Neither of them noticed the brown haired clone walk past on the path behind them, her military goggles glinting in the sunlight.

* * *

"_Onee-Sama….where are you…"_ Kuroko thought as she followed behind the boy who had interrupted her search, her sense of duty not allowing her to ignore a plea of help, especially when it actually _did_ fall under her jurisdiction.

Kuroko sighed. It had been nearly two days since she had seen Onee-sama and she was worried.

"_Why won't you tell me what is happening, Onee-sama!"_ She raged, scowling at the boy, whose name she hadn't yet bothered to learn, the boy who so obliviously and selfishly interrupted her search.

Just to check, she discreetly teleported once more.

"_It works now. Why wasn't it working then?"_ She wondered, biting on her lip. "_Was he blocking it? No…he was surprised to find that I was a teleporter… So he couldn't have been doing it consciously."_

"So, what is your name?" She asked, addressing the boy. "_Maybe he has some passive power set that blocks mine? Is that even possible? Being able to interrupt my shift through the 11th dimension is too unbelievable. I'll have to check this out later…"_

"The name's Kamijou Touma, pleased to meet you!" he replied without turning around.

Kuroko scowled. "_How rude."_

They continued to walk for a few minutes more before finally reaching their destination.

"_Oh, it's this thing..."_ Kuroko thought, a sense of nostalgia and amusement coming over her at the same time.

"Your money is lost, boy." She said out loud. "That machine is faulty, it swallows everyone's money. Nothing I can do about it." Her amused grin would've told otherwise, but the boy was too focused on her words to take-in anything else at the moment.

"Wait, you knew about this faulty hunk of junk and yet there are no signs to warn people!? Why is it still kept in service?" Touma asked indignantly.

Kuroko opened her mouth to answer with another snide remark, but then she realized that she didn't have a good one to give.

"_Since I am the judgement officer who patrols here most often….I am the one who's supposed to report stuff like this." _A growing sense of horror washed over the pigtailed teleporter, the image of a certain Konori Mii sending a bone chilling sensation down her spine.

"Uhh…W-well, you see.." She started to stutter out.

"Your patrol route is through this park, right? You at least know of someone who could get my money out of this thing, right? That's why you don't replace this thing, RIGHT!?" The boy started to ask, his desperate hope seeming to intensify at the end of each question.

"I will ensure that this incident is reported to the authorities in question!" Kuroko replied as she desperately tried to salvage the situation and hide her guilt. "Uhh...if that is all, I shall be leaving." She replied before abruptly teleporting away from the scene, leaving the boy to lifelessly gape at the empty space the girl once occupied.

"Such Misfortune!" He shouted, the frustration and disappointment expressed in that one, often repeated phrase of his.

* * *

Having escaped her duties and growing concern of her supervisor's wrath, the Tokiwadai teleporter returned to her search for Mikoto. She hadn't had any luck with the usual places, Joseph's was a bust and so was the arcade. Her concern grew with each minute that passed. Soon her curfew would put a stop to her search, but for now she stayed vigilant.

"Maybe _I can ask Uiharu to bring up the cameras?"_ She pondered, before shaking her head, cutting off the thought process.

"_I cannot bring attention to Onee-sama that way_. _Using Judgement resources for personal reasons would get me in trouble with Konori-senpai..."_

"Aaaah!" An exasperated shout left her as her head turned towards the sky, eyes settling on the ever-present blimp in the sky, showing the time and weather forecast for the week.

"_It's already five in the afternoon." _A gloomy expression made its way onto her face. "_Best make that report about the machine back at the office, curfew is coming up."_

As she teleported her way to the Judgement office, she found a surprising amount of resistance to the idea of reporting the machine in the park.

"_So many memories….." _She reminisced, the many times she berated Onee-sama for her stubborn insistence on abusing that machine floating to the surface of her mind.

She made the final jump, finding herself at the door to the small office where she worked with Uiharu and Konori-senpai, her hand hesitating for a split second to grasp the door handle.

She dithered for a few more seconds, biting her lip, her hand still raised.

It was stupid… just a plain machine.

But..

"_Maybe I can report it tomorrow."_ She decided. Pulling her hand back as she teleported her way back to the dorm, mind a muddle of worry, dwelling on the growing split between her and Mikoto.

* * *

Later that evening Kuroko was staring at her roommate's back, shock, fear and concern etching her features as she tried to digest the implications of the short yet exceptionally worrying conversation that she had just had.

"_W-what was that about? Throwing the city into disarray? What have you gotten into Onee-sama…"_

Having returned from her expedition away from the dorm, she was surprised to find the aim of her search standing inside her dorm room. Mikoto stood staring out of the window with a deep scowl, one she hid quickly once Kuroko came into the room.

She wanted to ask what was wrong, but the girl diverted her attention away before she could get a word in.

She paid it no mind, but after taking a shower she sat on the bed brushing her hair, when the chestnut haired girl spoke up.

_"What would you do if I sent the city into disarray?"_

She may have answered honestly, but seeing the empty look on her Onee-sama's face made her worry she had chosen her words poorly.

Once again she looked on in concern, her desire to help her Onee-sama warring with her desire to respect the friendship that they had, to wait for her to come and ask her for help.

"_One more day." _She laid her head down in the bed. "_One more day, I'll bear with this aching feeling of unease for one more day. But if you're still the same, I will have to force the answer out of you. For your sake Onee-sama."_

And so, she closed her eyes. Her psyche filled with thoughts that wouldn't leave her no matter how hard she tried. So much so that a particularly nasty feeling broke her slumber.

Peeking through her blurry gaze she woke to a dark room, barely lit by the pale moon outside yet bright enough to see the empty and tidy bed of Mikoto's. Her heavily patched up and ragged bear staring creepily back at Kuroko.

She lay there, staring at the doll, her mind disengaged, turning over possibilities, waiting.

Waiting.

Waiting…

Too absorbed in her own thoughts and worry. Too absorbed in her need for her Onee-sama to come back and tell her it was all okay.

She was broken out of her vigil by the door slamming open violently.

"_Onee-sama?"_ She thought, hope rising within her as she teleported to stand.

She was however met by the mighty visage of the Dorm Manager, looking uncharacteristically flustered, her eyes briefly registering Kuroko before scanning the entire room with a suspicious amount of precision.

"Shirai-san. Where is Misaka-san?" Came the demanding question, a frisson of fear in her tone that put Kuroko on edge.

"O-Onee-sama? She is in the b-bathr-" She tried to deceive the woman, ready as always to cover for Mikoto if needed. But this time was different.

The dorm manager grabbed the front of Kuroko's collar, her eyes slightly wild.

"This is _not_ the time for games. Where. Is. Misaka-san?" The dorm manager spoke with a domineering tone, instilling absolute terror into the pigtailed girl.

"I-I don't know! She hasn't come back yet!" Kuroko sputtered out as she was forced on her toes from the iron like grip of the woman. "What's the matter? What happened?"

The dorm manager stared into Kuroko's eyes, a mixture of anger, and more worryingly, fear swimming in them.

She let go of Kuroko's collar, causing her to unceremoniously fall on her ass.

"Shit!" The dorm manager cursed uncharacteristically, storming out of the room, not even bothering to close the door behind her.

Kuroko scrambled to her feet, switching on the lights as she did, absently noting that it was close to ten in the evening, worry spiking within her.

"_Onee-sama...what have you done?"_ She dressed herself quickly, teleporting after the dorm manager to find out what exactly was happening.

The only occupant left being the soulless, black eyed bear on the bed.

* * *

Mikoto walked into the alleyway which was scheduled to be the battleground for today's experiment, her eyes determined, her mind focused, her chest closing in on her like a vice, and her legs shaking ever so slightly.

The alleyway was narrow, red brick to one side and plain concrete on the other, a not too uncommon site in the city. Numerous pipes ran along the walls, one of which had seemingly ruptured with great force, the wall it was running along pockmarked and chipped.

Further along one side of a dumpster had been blown apart, the debris and waste littering the entire width of the alleyway with a rancid stench.

She eyed the mess in front of her, clear evidence of the fight that had already started. She pulled out her phone, checking the time once more.

"_20:35… I'm late."_ How pathetic. She couldn't even arrive in time to save her sister the pain she was cruelly subject to. Nevertheless, she suppressed the overwhelming feeling of guilt and sorrow already weighing her down, in turn focusing on the trail of destruction left behind by the ensuing battle.

_"Murderr" _

SCame the unbidden, unwelcome thought, whispering at her ever so insidiously as she surveyed the scene.

She followed the trail of debris to where she assumed the fight was still happening, panting past the inexplicable tightness in her chest the best she could. She kept running through her plan again and again, trying to iron out any semblance of doubt it may bring. To squash this undeserving fear of death.

"_I need to go all out… but I need to leave holes. I need to have some easily exploitable hole for him to take advantage of…"_

She was well aware that this was unnecessary. He'd simply blow through everything she'd throw at him with indifference. Yet this small semblance of control made her think she had some form of influence on her fate. It brought nothing but reassurance to her terrified mind. And even then, not much of it.

"_This is the only way. The only thing left for me."_

The trail of debris continued, Mikoto slowly following along. The alley opened to a wide street, the entrance of a railway yard standing opposite to the alley's exit. The road was deserted, oddly so given the time of the night. Once again hammering it home that this city was run by the worst scum on earth.

As she walked towards the entrance of the noticeably damaged yard, her attention was stolen by the loud thud of metal coming from her right. More concerningly, the anguished shout which was very familiar to her by now.

"Is that the best you can do, Puppet?" Spoke a voice. The voice that narrated her nightmares of death and agony, the voice of the monster that made a game of murdering her sisters.

Her face twisted, scowling heavily as the rage and fear of the past few weeks came to the forefront of her mind. Her hands clenched into shaking fists, her anger warring with her dread at what was to come.

"_This is the only way."_ Her anchor to sanity seemed less and less stable the more steps she took towards her demise.

She took another step, this time a crack of lightning sounding out from within the yard followed by a pained female grunt and distinct laughter.

She froze for a second, suddenly hesitant to take the next step.

Her face then twisted in disgust at her hesitation.

"_This is the price for my crimes, for what I have done. The price for all the pain I have caused and the people I have killed. This is what my life is. A bargaining chip for all their lives."_

"This is the only way_."_ She reiterated this mantra again, strangling that weak, unnecessary hope she held for a better solution for thempteenth time.

She walked forward into the maze of containers, into the forefront of this hell that plagued her sisters, towards the monster that cackled maniacally at the pain and suffering he was causing to innocent lives.

She walked ahead, step by step towards the end of this nightmare.

* * *

Accelerator glared at the wheezing clone as it slowly pulled itself back onto its feet.

They stood in a clearing at the middle of the yard, hidden from the rest of it by the tall stacks of containers overhead, all placed in such a way to allow the centre point to house the intersection of all the paths in the yard. It left a wide opening, one he found much less annoying than the cramped little alleyways he was forced to fight in.

"_Not that it will make any difference" _Accelerator grumbled absentmindedly, eyeing the panting, bleeding clone disdainfully.

"Tch," He spat, "I thought all of you were connected or something. Ten thousand tries, and you don't even last more than ten minutes when I allow you to do whatever you want."

He ambled towards the clone, ignoring the bolt of energy that it threw towards him. The attack reflected back to its source, causing the clone to fall, convulsing, as its own attack hit it.

He stared down at the clone as it tried to get to its feet again.

"_Is this really going to get me to level 6?"_ he thought, the ever present doubt in his mind rising to the surface yet again, as it did with nearly every pathetic attempt the clones made to defeat him. The constant reassurance of the calculations behind the experiment grew more dull by each passing day. The fact he had gone through half of these pests with nothing to show ticked him off.

Ten thousand lab rats and not a smidget of progress.

_"Fucking lab junkies…"_

"Get away from her." He was broken out of his disdainful musings by a girlish voice. A familiar voice. One without the droning monotone he came to tune out. One that was so clearly filled with a certain emotion. Anger.

"Onee...sama?" The clone below him questioned in a weak whisper, as both of them turned to the source of the intrusion.

Emerging from one of the pathways between the containers was a girl wearing a familiar face.

"_Another clone?"_ Accelerator thought confused, as his eyes fell on the familiar brown hair and brown eyes.

His interest grew sharper when he noted the pure radiant anger of this girl. This was no clone.

Which meant...

"Oh?" A smirk formed on his lips, his foot planting itself on the cheek of the clone below him, firmly pushing it's face down into the gravel. Causing the clone to let out a soft whimper, one which caused a resentful growl to escape the intruder. "Come for another round, Original?"

"I said get away from her!" The girl nearly snarled, her face a rictus of anger.

"Or what?" Accelerator taunted, grinding the clones face deeper into the gravel with the heel of his foot. "We both know that you have nothing to threaten me with, Original. You're as threatening to me as this pest beneath my shoe. So go on, give me your best shot."

"You must...not...fight. Onee...Sama…." The clone croaked out."The Experiment…"

"Oh, shut it." Accelerator grumbled, kicking the weakened body of the clone away from him, sending her flying through the air past Mikoto.

She looked on in horror as her sister's body impacted a container with a sickening crunch, leaving a stain of red on the metal frame as it fell to the ground. She let out a strangled, incoherent yell of despair, her eyes solely focused on the clone's ravaged form.

She instinctively reached for the poor girl, but quickly pulled her hand down. Remembering that she only had one plan of action. One way to end it all, to save what remained. She slowly turned back towards Accelerator, the sparks around her intensifying, her expression murderous.

The pale monster spread his arms wide, a taunting notion matched only by his cocky grin.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" He jeered.

Then, with a heated growl the ground around her exploded in a torrent of electricity, sending gravel and dirt spiraling toward the albino in a miniature hurricane.

They all impacted his barrier, every particle reflecting away but quickly falling back into the twisting mass of dust and debris.

"Wow, you can throw rocks. Got anything else?" He said, dissipating the storm with a flick of his finger, the fields keeping it in place falling apart as he counteracted them. "We saw this trick last time, this isn't anything new." He drawled, seemingly bored, his face losing its trademark grin.

She glared back at him, her power reforming the cloud. This time, it encased him in a dome of densely packed debris. Throwing him into darkness as the construct violently shaped itself to her will.

And then the assault started.

Multiple blades of vibrating iron sand shot out at him from different angles, each deadly enough to cut through solid concrete, with various bolts of lightning striking at the same time, the pure radiance of which consumed the darkness of night around it.

And every single strike was reflected without trouble.

Accelerator smirked, deflecting one of the bolts at her which didn't even force her to flinch as the strike got cleanly absorbed back. The only result achieved was to make her hair stand a little straighter.

"You disappoint me, third rate" Accelerator said, smirking as yet another blade of sand dissipated on his barrier.

"Where is all that fabled power we Level 5's have? Are you really even one? Show me something fun wouldn't you!?" He demanded, kicking the gravel beneath to send it flying at her.

The piece of gravel shot forward at near supersonic speed, but was ground to dust by a cloud of iron sand that came to meet it. The girl just glared at him, causing his smirk to widen.

"None of those fragile dolls could ever match this amount of power. Frankly I was beginning to get pissed off at the weaklings I'm being forced to slaughter." He said, nearly shouting over the continuous boom of lightning around him.

"Don't you _dare_ talk about my Sisters!" She screamed. The assault intensified further, remaining as ineffective as ever against the stationary monster of Academy City.

"Sisters?" Accelerator asked. , his face showing a hint of confusion. "What do you mean sisters? They're sacks of meat shaped into a pale imitation of you. Windup dolls, created to be destroyed by me."

"DO NOT! CALL THEM! DOLLS!" " She raged, punctuating it with an incoherent scream of wordless anger. She cut off her assault, giving him a moment to breathe as the dome surrounding him expanded outward, leaving him staring curiously.

"_Oh ho?"_ He then exclaimed within his mind as the electric potential above him suddenly spiked, the field bending around him as his reflection came into play.

The air around him broke down as the potential became too high for it to withstand, the energy flowing in a white river around him. The light grew to blinding intensity before he adjusted his calculations to filter it out, leaving him momentarily blinking white afterimages from his eyes. The temperature of the air around him grew, with the ground surrounding him growing red hot and slowly breaking down around him. He started to pant as the air around him rapidly became unbreathable under the incredible heat, catalyzing into ozone at a rate far faster than any of the girl's clones had ever managed.

An attack that could truly make him work.

"Aaaaa…aha...Ahahaha! Kahahahahahahah!"

And in the middle of it all, Accelerator let out a demented laugh of sheer ecstasy. Laughing at the sheer futility of it all.

* * *

Mikoto looked on, sweat beading from her forehead at the strain of maintaining the stream of lightning surrounding Accelerator, slightly disbelieving as the lightning continued and nothing came out from within it. The roar drowned out any and all sounds around her and the blinding light threatened to blind her.

"_He didn't reflect it?"_ She thought, frowning slightly at the sight.

She hadn't expected it to last this long.

Before she could come to a conclusion however, something rocketed out from the center of the stream of energy, too fast for her blinded eyes to follow. The world turned dim for a moment, unbearable pain striking her chest and robbing her of oxygen before a shot of pain pierced her back once she felt like she hit something solid. Her hips felt numb yet were blanketed in excruciating pain, masking the far greater agony she felt from below her waist.

She felt her body fall and impact with the ground, the pain peaking and causing her to nearly blackout.

Her concept of time grew weird. The agonising sensation she was experiencing felt as if she was in slow motion. A single second felt like forever.

"_W-what happened? Where is Accelerator?"_ Her thoughts grew panicked, eyes flickering about the yard as she tried to push herself up. Yet the slightest movement made her arms recoil in pain.

Her eyes then fell upon a pair of sock clad legs, red rapidly staining the white fabric. They resembled broken twigs, bent in such a way that they faced in opposite directions. The blood stained bone of her tibia was piercing her skin, a sickening sight which welled up a disgusted reaction from the bottom of her gut.

"_Are_ _those...my legs?"_ .

Her head was suddenly forced up, causing her to whimper in pain at the tight hold on her hair. Her eyes focused on the moon for a mere moment, the shine of its surface drawing her slow and nauseous mind.

That single focal point was taken from her as the sadistic face of Accelerator blocked her view of it from above.

"Oh? You're still conscious? Interesting!" His voice chimed so gleefully, making her ears ring for a moment as she tried to regain her bearings against the confusion brought by her pain.

"W-what?.." Her mind barely registered his words.

"I must say, using a controlled stream of lightning was inspired, and not something your worthless clones could have managed, though it's a far cry from being good enough. Level 6 my ass, this project won't get me anywhere if this is what your power is like." With one hand pulling her head up by her hair, the other took her jaw in a forceful grip, strong enough that she could feel the bone creak.

"You nearly suffocated me when all the oxygen started reacting and becoming ozone within the stream, not to mention the sheer heat produced. Had to recalibrate my calculations on the fly, not something I have to do very often."

He then let out another demented giggle, his grip tightening even further, her jaw nearly cracking underneath the force.

Mikoto stared into the deranged face of her would-be killer. Unable to make out any details past the two patches of bright red where his eyes were supposed to be.

"_So this is the end then?..."_ She thought, a veil of calm drowning out the pain and the panic that had earlier gripped her.

"_I'll finally be able to right some of the wrongs I have done."_ A smile nearly coming to her face at the sheer _relief _that the thought brought to her.

"_I don't have to fight anymore." _she thought at last, as she stared into the pitiless red eyes of Accelerator

"You must...not...kill….Onee-sama" came a strained, weak voice from her left, breaking her out of her veil of calm. "The...calculations…."

A sense of horror came over Mikoto as the clone stole Accelerator's attention.

"N-no!" she tried to stammer out. "Y-you m-mu-"

"Tch…" As those red eyes turned back to her, she could see the boredom and disinterest that now filled them. And with one hand he simply slammed her head against the container, forcing a darkness to slowly consume her sight before she fell unconscious.

* * *

Accelerator looked upon the mangled body of the third rate in front of him, well used to the sight.

After all, he had already destroyed more than ten thousand such bodies.

He then turned to look at the clone of the body in front of him, equally mangled, but conscious.

"Now what?" he spat.

"The...experiment...cannot...afford...any...deviations. You...must...disengage…." It continued to say.

He rolled his eyes.

"She isn't dead, merely unconscious." He grumbled. "Not that it makes any difference." He continued, walking up to the clone.

"You are yet to complete the experiment, says Misaka as she expresses her disapproval." Another intruder, a second clone with that same voice spoke from behind him. A deep scowl plastered his face..

In response, he kicked the broken doll in front of him, causing the head to fly back with disproportionate force, shattering into a bloody pulp as it hit the container.

"There. Satisfied?" He asked sarcastically.

The clone behind him didn't reply, and instead moved to start cleaning up the body, with another few coming up and attending to the unconscious Level 5.

"Tch.." He spat yet again, somehow feeling even more frustrated than he usually did at the end of each experiment. Something he couldn't quite explain but which definitely bugged him a great deal. Though, if he was truthful, it all just felt like-.

"_...an utter waste of time."_

* * *

**So there we have another chapter.**

**So some of you may be disappointed that Mikoto didn't die. But that never was the point of the story anyway. Wanted to explore a darker end of the sisters arc, it's effects on Mikoto and the overall greater plot of Index.**

**Once again, a huge shout out to my beta Lilac, who cleaned this up, and gave a myriad of suggestions that ultimately led to a slew of improvements on this chapter. And also nearly doubled the wordcount in the end.**

**Another shout out to my man from the Kamachiland discord for helping me with the initial edits.**

**Hope you enjoyed it!**


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